The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, and more particularly to a printing apparatus incorporated in an automatic withdrawal machine used in, for example, a bank for printing data on the pages of a passbook.
Conventionally, customers can readily withdraw money from the banks through automatic withdrawal machines. In withdrawing money through one such automatic withdrawal machine, a customer or user opens his passbook at one page to be printed, and then inserts it into the machine. Then, the automatic withdrawal machine reads prescribed information on the customer from the inserted passbook, and prints proper items, such as an amount of money withdrawn, the balance, etc., on the passbook. When the last line of the page at which the passbook is opened is printed, the passbook is transferred to a page turning apparatus, where the page is turned forward for continued printing, and then after printing a new page the passbook is returned to the customer.
The printing apparatus incorporated in the known automatic withdrawal machine, however, had the following drawbacks.
Suppose a passbook 1 opened at pages 1a and 1b is inserted into the known withdrawal machine as shown in FIG. 1. The passbook 1 will then be transferred to a printing apparatus 2. The printing apparatus 2 has a page turning device 3 and a print head 4. The page turning device 3 has a first guide shutter 5 which can move in the direction of arrow A to open. It further has a second guide shutter 6 which is disposed below the print head 4 and which can move in the direction of arrow B. When the first guide shutter 5 is closed, it guides the passbook 1 to the page turning device 3. Once it has been moved in the direction of arrow A and thus opened, it no longer prevents the leaf 1a from being turned. When the second guide shutter 6 lies below the print head 4, it guides the passbook 1. After the passbook 1 reaches the printing position, the second guide shutter 6 is moved in the direction of arrow B from beneath the print head 4 and can no longer hinder the printing.
As mentioned above, the printing apparatus has two guide shutters. Both guide shutters are moved in a complicated manner. As they are moved, parts of the printing apparatus tend to rattle and shake. The rattling and shaking of the parts sometimes causes jamming of the passbooks.